Methodology

Deciding what ‘race law’ is and what it is not

At common law, the race of a person is legally irrelevant. This attribute can, however, be made relevant by statutes (legislation), regulations, and judgments of the superior courts. When an individual’s race is made relevant, the instrument through which that is done or enforced, is here included under the term ‘race law’.

In other words, ‘race law’ is defined as any positive law, including statutes, regulations, and judgments of the courts, that makes or recognises race, skin-colour, or ethnicity as legally relevant.

Instruments that remove an existing racial handicap, burden, or disability from law – that is, makes race irrelevant – are not regarded as race law.

Inclusions and exclusions from the Index

At present, the Index includes:

• Acts of the Parliament of South Africa containing original, free-standing provisions

In future the Index will include:

• Regulations of the South African executive government
• Acts of the Provincial Legislature of the nine provinces / Ordinances of the previous four provinces and one territory
• Regulations of the provincial governments
• By-laws of the various municipalities
• Judgments of the superior courts

The Index excludes:

• Amendment or Repeal Acts of the Parliament of South Africa that do not contain original, free-standing provisions
• Laws that make direct, indirect, or implicit references to race (usually in preambles) without operationalising those references
• Laws that amend or repeal other laws by removing racial handicaps, burdens, or disabilities

Updates to the Index

While the Index is updated continuously offline, these updates will only be published onto this website at most twice per month. Such updates can be tracked on the News & Updates page.

Latest updates:

• 20 August 2024 (minor update)
• 24 October 2023 (minor update)
• 25 November 2022 (major update)